ENOCH
ALLEN
WARD was born June 26, 1831 to Mason and Hannah Barton Ward in
what was then Newton Township, Gloucester County NJ. This location is
presently within the borders of the City of Camden. He was the youngest
of seventh of eight children, and interestingly enough, born between two
brothers both born to
Mason and Hannah Ward named Aaron. The first Aaron had been born
in 1829 but died before his third birthday, and the youngest child, born
in 1834, was also named Aaron Ward. By
the time of the 1860 Census he had moved to Camden's North Ward, where
he worked as a house carpenter. His widowed mother Hannah Ward then
lived with him. She would move in with younger brother's Aaron's
family after the Civil War.

Generally
known as E. Allen Ward, he married Emma Wilson on March 20, 1861. The
marriage produced
three children, of which at least two reached adulthood.

In 1871 Jesse Starr donated 4
and 1/2 acres of land along Haddon Avenue on which to construct a new city
hall for Camden. Designed by Camden architect Stephen
Decatur Button, the contract was given to
E. Allen
Ward for the sum of $125,000. The building was completed in December
of 1875, and became the seat of government for Camden the following
year.

During
his lifetime, E. Allen Ward and family had made their home at 439
Berkeley Street. At the time of the 1880 Census they were living at 517
Clinton Street. Daughter Annie W., 17, and son Allie M. Ward, 14, were then
living at home.

In
1880 E. Allen Ward was given another government contract, this time to
make improvements at the Camden County complex at Lakeland, in
Gloucester Township. He was to build the County's first lunatic asylum,
and enlarge the county almshouse. His father-in-law, Isaac Wilson, was
then Steward of the almshouse. While working on this project, he
contracted "typhus fever" and died in January of 1881. His
wife and children lived at 513 North 4th Street in the late 1880s and
early 1890s.

Younger
brother Aaron Ward was also well known in Camden for many years as a
contractor. Concentrating on roads, bridges, and other public
improvements, he built the first bridge
across the Cooper River at Baird Avenue in 1903,
and he also built another at Kaighn
Avenue to cross the river, then known as Cooper's Creek. Aaron
Ward also
built a concrete wharf at the foot of Cooper
Street that was utilized for many decades, and in South Camden Aaron
Ward's firm built the Line Ditch sewer.

Niece
Lettie
Allen Ward, after teaching until her 30s,
became a physician in 1897, gaining distinction as being one of Camden's
first female doctors. She lived and practiced general medicine at 704 Broadway,
and later at 325 Cooper
Street, also specializing in ailments of the ear, nose, and
throat.

Camden
City Hall - 1876-1930

Many
postcards were issued over the years with images of the Camden
City Hall.

I
have arranged the postcards in a manner to show you what you
would have seen if you walked around City Hall between 1890 and
1930.

LEFT:
If you were standing on the southwest corner of Haddon Avenue
and Mickle Street, looking south, this is what you would have
seen. Mailed in 1905.

LEFT:
You have walked across Haddon Avenue, and have walked south to a
point about 40 yards north of Benson Street. The red brick
three-story building at left stood on the corner of South 7th
and Benson Street. The rowhouses to the right of that
building are still standing and for the most part in use as of
2004.

Now
you have walked south on Haddon Avenue, and you are looking at
the Northwest corner of Haddon Avenue and Benson Street. The two
postcards below are views that would be had from more or less
the same vantage point, in somewhat later years, as evidenced by
the growth of the trees along Benson Street.

This
is what you would have seen in the late 1910s or very early
1920s.

City
Hall on Haddon Avenue

Camden
County Lunatic Asylum at Lakeland - 1931The main section in the center is the
work of E. Allen Ward

Click
on Image to Enlarge

Thanks
to Aaron Ward's great-grand-daughter for her help in
building this page.